Freelancer Academy
by TsukiMizuko
Summary: Freelancer Academy: A school for children with special abilities. Sent to the Academy from the Orphanage, David is placed in the lively-and slightly hazardous-dorm 12-F. But David has a rare ability-unhoned and dangerous. He has isolated himself from others his whole life, only to find that his dorm mates-be they quiet, harsh, or friendly-aren't just friends; they're family.
1. Freelancer Academy

**Hi, so I'm really sorry to the people who took the time to read and review this fic only to get absolutely nothing for over two years. Shortly after I originally wrote and posted the first two chapters of this fic I lost all my inspiration for it and then lost interest in RvB. I got into it again a few weeks back, and when I reread this fic I was kind of appalled at how bad my writing was two years ago. Therefore, I am going to be rewriting this story a bit. I've already started working on the second chapter, which I hope to have finished in the next week or so. Once that's done I plan to start the third chapter over from scratch and go from there. For now I just want to see if there's any interest left in this fic. That's it for now.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Red vs. Blue or any of its characters or plot lines. That stuff belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

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BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The 13-year-old turned and reached out clumsily with one had to turn off the alarm before one of the supervisors came into his room to tell him off.

He groaned tiredly, not wanting to get up.

The boy got out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom, splashing water onto his face to wake himself up. The boy grabbed some clothes and took a shower, dressing once he was out. He looked in the mirror and glared, then ran his fingers through his perpetually messy blonde hair in a vain attempt to get it to stay down.

Returning to his room the boy checked around it, opening drawers and checking the shelves to see if there was anything left before turning to the backpack sitting on the floor.

"Boy!" A voice screeched from downstairs. "Boy get down here now!" The boy sighed and picked up his backpack, making his way down the long flight of stairs to the first floor of the Orphanage.

A stern-looking woman wearing a name tag that read "Ms. Red" was waiting for him at the front door. "Ready to go?" She asked.

He nodded.

"Alright, let's go, I don't have all day."

The boy resisted the urge to make a comment about how she did in fact have all day, not wanting to earn himself a smack for insolence.

The Orphanage's car was sitting just in front of the large building that had been the boy's home for as long as he could remember. Even though it only took a few moments for the boy to get his backpack into the car and get into the back seat, Ms. Red was already looking impatient to leave. As soon as the boy was buckled into the seat, she turned on the car and pulled away from the curb.

The boy still remembered the time a week ago when he had overheard the conversation about his departure from the Orphanage.

Flashback

 _It was 9:30 in the morning on a Sunday, the least likely time for people to be coming to the Orphanage on any kind of business, when the boy heard the front door's bell ring. He snuck to the bottom of the stairs, curious to see who was there when most people would be at church._

 _The man he saw was unfamiliar, wearing a dark grey suit and tie, and glasses that reflected the light in a way that hid his eyes._

 _The man walked up to the front desk where Ms. Kaleb was sitting, working on some boring looking paperwork. He cleared his throat to gain her attention._

 _"Ah, excuse me," Ms. Kaleb said, "Can I help you sir?"_

 _"Yes, I am here about one of the children in your care." The man said in a heavy southern accent._

 _Ms. Kaleb suddenly seemed to recognize the man. "Mr. Church, I'm surprised to see you here, you usually go to one of our other locations."_

There are other locations? _The boy thought._ That's strange, I thought this was the only one.

 _Mr. Church was speaking again. "Yes, but I heard of an unusual case that I found interesting. A boy of 13 years who has a remarkable special ability. I am at the correct location, am I not?"_

 _"Yes, and I believe I know exactly who you are looking for. I was told to keep his file handy in case something like this happened." Ms. Kaleb said, pulling out a file and putting it in front of Mr. Church._

 _The strange man opened the file and looked over it for a moment before nodding. "This is the correct file. I'd like to take him off your hands, if you don't mind."_

 _"That," Ms. Kaleb said, "Would be wonderful Mr. Church."_

 _"What paperwork will I need to fill out?"_

 _"Everything is right here in his file, you just need to sign here." Ms. Kaleb said, pointing to where Mr. Church needed to sign. "Should I tell him to pack up his things?"_

 _Mr. Church shook his head. "I am unable to take him today. Please have him sent over on Saturday."_

 _"Of course sir, thank you for taking the time to stop in personally. I believe I should warn you that this particular boy can be something of a handful at times."_

 _"I am quite familiar with dealing with 'handfuls' Ma'am." Mr. Church replied dryly. "And this case is of great personal interest to me."_

 _With that rather odd statement, the man left._

 _The boy realized that Ms. Kaleb was getting up, probably to talk to whoever was leaving, and he didn't want to get into trouble for eavesdropping._

End Flashback

"Stop daydreaming boy, we're here." Ms. Red snapped impatiently, already getting out of the car to walk the boy inside.

The boy got out of the car and retrieved his backpack, then followed Ms. Red up the stone path to the entrance of his new home. There was a sign over it that read "Freelancer Academy" in large letters.

They entered the Academy and were greeted by the sight of a small waiting area and a receptionist's desk at which a dark-skinned man with black hair and unnerving black eyes was working on a very advanced-looking computer.

He looked up when the door shut behind the two. He smiled, but the action didn't seem to reach his eyes, and only served to further discomfort the already nervous 13-year-old.

"May I help you?" His smooth voice wasn't much better that his eyes.

"Yes," Ms. Red answered, ushering the young boy forward. "The Director requested that this boy be brought here today."

The man nodded slowly, looking over the boy briefly.

"Is there anything else you need, or can I leave?" Ms. Red asked curtly. "I have things to do." Once again the boy had to hold back a comment about Ms. Red's actual schedule for the day.

"No, that will be all we need," The man replied, "Thank you for taking this time out of your day, Ma'am."

Ms. Red turned around and left the building.

The boy watched Ms. Red leave before turning back to the man at the desk.

"Welcome to Freelancer Academy young man, I am the Counselor. You are David Washington, I presume?"

"Yes." The boy said.

"Good," The Counselor said, "I will show you to the Director's office, you may leave your bag here for now."

David simply nodded, still a bit overwhelmed by how quickly everything had changed.

David followed the Counselor down a short hallway to an office that had a plaque next to it that said "Leonard Church, Director."

The Counselor knocked on the door and a muffled "Come in" was heard.

The door opened to reveal a relatively large office with a window in the wall to the left of the door. There were a few plaques and awards on the walls, and a ceiling light. Across from the door was a large desk made of a light wood, with two chairs in front of it. Behind the desk there was the Director: a man with greying hair, green eyes behind glasses and a stern expression on his face.

"I have brought the boy you asked for." The Counselor.

"Thank you Counselor, you may leave." The Director's voice was calm and cold.

The Counselor nodded and turned to leave. "Shall I call someone to show him around?" He asked, and at a nod from the Director he left.

"Sit down please." The Director said.

David sat down nervously on one of the chairs and looked at the Director, who seemed to be assessing him with those piercing green eyes.

"I believe it would be redundant to ask you if you are David Washington, so I will skip that point. I am Leonard Church, the Director at Freelancer Academy. This Academy specializes in dealing with unusual cases, as I'm sure you know."

David hadn't been aware of that fact, all he had known up until now was that he was going to be leaving the Orphanage.

"The students here are divided into groups of twelve, and each group has their own dorm. The students in each dorm have all their classes together except for some sections of training. Your files have been reviewed and you have been placed in Dorm 12-F. One of your roommates will be waiting outside to show you around." The Director took a thin book from a drawer and slid it across the desk to David. "This has all the rules and information you need in it, as well as your schedule. Are there any questions?"

"No, sir." David answered.

"Very well." The Director said, then he smiled faintly. "Welcome to Freelancer Academy."

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 **So there we have it! Finally!**

 **Reviews are appreciated and I'll take any constructive criticism that you have. Flames are not welcome under any circumstances and will be... Yeah, I think you get the point.**

 **See ya in the next chapter.**


	2. Dorm 12-F

**Hello, I** **'m back with the second chapter sooner** **I originally thought I would be. I was actually kind of figuring that it would take me longer than this to get the editing on this chapter done, but it's only been a few days. Unfortunately, I'm only a little ways into the third chapter, and I'm planning to basically rewrite it from scratch, so it may take me a while to finish it.**

 **Enjoy the new chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Red vs. Blue or any of its characters, concepts, or plot lines. All that stuff belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

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As soon as David left the Director's office he headed back to the main office. The Counselor was already sitting at his desk, working on the computer again.

David noticed, however, that he and the Counselor were no longer the only ones in the room. There was another boy standing by a hallway that David had noticed but not payed any attention to when he first entered the Academy. When he spotted the new arrival standing at the entrance to the hall that lead to the Director's office the other boy grinned and waved at David.

David was quick to make his way over to the other boy, slinging his backpack over one shoulder along the way. Once he reached the boy he took a closer look at him. He was around David's age, with messy brown hair that matched his tanned skin and a pair of sharp grey eyes that sparkled with mischief and humor.

"Hey," The other boy greeted David, "You're David, right? The new kid?"

"Yeah." David said softly. Something about this boy was welcoming, but David tended to quiet down a lot when he was around people he didn't know.

The boy grinned even more, if that was possible. "Well, nice to meet ya, the name's James. James Yorkshire."

"David Washington." David responded, still quiet.

He received a raised eyebrow at that. "I' supposed to be showing you around and teaching you the ropes, but I think I'll start by showing you the way to the dorms. It should be 12-F, same as mine."

"Um," David hesitated slightly, "Yeah. That's right."

"Good. Let's get going."

David followed the excitable boy out of the office and down a long hallway, walking faster that normal to keep up with James.

"There are twenty-six dorm hallways, labeled A-Z, there are fifteen dorms per hallway, and each dorm holds twelve people. The dorm hallways have their assigned letter above the entrance to the hallway, so it's pretty easy to tell which one's which. That and the fact that when you get here-" The two boys reached a large circular area with a two-level pit in the center "-the dorms go in a circle starting with A on your left and ending with Z on your right. By the way, this is the pit. During free time a lot of people like to come here to hang out. There's another pit at the end of the hallway going the opposite direction from the hallway we just came from. That one leads to the cafeteria, the library, and basically any other room that isn't a dorm."

The new student could only nod as he tried to process all the information he was being given so quickly.

"This is hall F," James continued, "There are numbers next to each door, odd numbers on the right, even numbers on the left. 12-F is down that way near the end."

James led David down the hall until they reached the door with a number "12" next to it. The door, like all the other doors, was made of a plain, medium brown wood with a silver door knob.

"Um..." David started nervously.

"Hm?"

"I was just wondering, are some dorms for girls and some for boys? And are they all one big room with twelve beds, or are they sectioned off into smaller rooms?"

James smirked. "The Academy doesn't separate the students by gender, at least not for the most part. Dorms are co-ed, with a small commons area in the middle of each dorm, but there _are_ smaller rooms so that boys and girls have some privacy. Who's placed in which dorm with who is determined by things like a student's special ability, personality, and so on."

"So everyone in each dorm works together and gets along alright?" David asked.

"In theory, yes. In practice, it can go south real quick."

"What do you mean by that?" David asked, beginning think that him being here might be a bad idea.

James, who already had his hand on the door knob, smiled encouragingly. "You'll see in a moment." He said.

Before David could say or ask anything else, James opened the door. "Welcome to dorm 12-F!"

The first thing David saw when the door to his new dorm room opened was what looked like a ball of fur launching itself at him from somewhere inside the room. The blonde boy yelped in surprise. He dropped his backpack and tripped backwards, landing on his back with what was definitely a ball of fur sitting on his chest.

There were several bursts of laughter from people inside the room.

"Nice shot!" A boy's voice called.

"Ow..." David muttered, having smacked his head on the floor when he fell. Lifting his head to see what had hit him, he saw some form of furry creature sitting on his chest, its head raised proudly as though it had just made the catch of the day. "Oh, it's just a cat." David mumbled.

It was a rather unusual cat, David realized, with pale grey eyes with just a hint of blue to them, and pale cream fur with a few neon pink and purple streaks.

Wait. Neon pink and purple streaks?

"Seriously you guys?" A boy's voice spoke up over the laughter coming from inside the room. "Did you really have to scare the new kid right out of the gate?"

David looked up from the strange cat in his lap to see another boy around his age, this one with light blond hair and warm bluish-grey eyes.

"Sorry about that." The boy said, scooping the cat off of David's chest and dumping it unceremoniously on the floor. The cat hissed at the boy and then turned and stalked back into the room with what could only be described as the feline equivalent of a human being indignant.

David sat up to find the other boy offering a hand to help him up. "Unfortunately we've got a couple people around here who think the best way to welcome a newcomer is to use them as target practice for a feline cannonball." With those words the boy glared back at the cat, then at James.

"Don't worry, I'm used to things like that." David said, accepting the offered hand and then locating and retrieving his back pack from where he had dropped it.

"Still, it's not exactly appropriate." The boy said. "I'm Neil by the way."

"David." David replied. "Nice to meet you."

"Ditto. Come meet the rest of our dorm mates" Neil said, moving aside to let David enter the dorm. James followed, shutting the door behind them.

The blonde was greeted by the sight of a medium-sized common room with that had off-white walls and light brown wood flooring. There was a table in the middle of the room, and a couch and a few comfy chairs scattered around the edges, along with several bookcases and a TV.

Seven people were scattered around the room. A pair of boys who looked like they were around 16 or 17 were chatting quietly in two of the comfy chairs. They looked up when David walked in, watching him with curious gazes.

The cat had settled itself on the arm of a comfy chair which was occupied by a relatively small brunette who had a book settled in her lap, one hand marking her spot while her other hand moved to scratch the cat lightly behind the ears. A small grin pulled at the corners of the brunette's mouth, most likely a result of the cat's assault on David.

There was a redheaded girl sitting in one of the comfy chairs by the couch, a textbook in her lap. Her bright green eyes sparked with irritation as she briefly directed a small scowl at the cat before turning to look at David, her expression softening and becoming more curious than irritated. Next the redhead, seated on the arm of the chair, was a girl with golden-blonde hair. She looked up from the notebook balanced on her knee, the curiosity in her expression a near-perfect match to the redhead's, and David noted that the two girls strongly resembled each other.

Lastly, there were two more boys seated at the table, their heads close together as they tinkered something that looked suspiciously electronic in nature, somehow still oblivious to the new arrival who had just stepped through the door.

"Alright, new kid's here!" James called cheerfully. Those who hadn't been paying attention looked up or turned towards the door. "I think some introductions are in order. You first, Dave."

His words caught the attention of the two boys who looked up and turned their attention to the newcomer, looking a bit surprised.

David frowned at the shortening of his name, but decided to let it go for now. "I'm David Washington." He introduced himself, making sure to speak up despite his nervousness.

"I'm James Yorkshire, you know that already." James said.

"I'm Neil Dakota." Neil introduced himself properly. "The cat is my younger twin sister Sierra Dakota. She's not feeling too talkative today."

David turned to stare at the cat. The feline lifted its-her-head and stared right back at him before turning to hiss at Neil. The boy just shook his head in exasperation. "Hey, don't start hissing at me."

In response, the cat hissed again and then jumped off the couch. She began to shift and change shape until she had taken on the form of a girl just a bit shorter than Neil, with the same blue-green eyes as her brother, and chin length hair with a pair of neon pink and purple streaks in it.

The taller, more sturdily built of the two boys at the table introduced himself next. smiled brightly. "Name's Cole Uttridge. Nice to have ya."

The smaller boy grinned with as much cheer as, if not more than, Cole. "My name's Gabriel DeLane. It's nice to finally see a new face again."

Somehow, that last part was less than comforting.

One of the two older teens sitting in the comfy chairs, who was already growing a rather impressive handlebar mustache, introduced himself next. "The name's Reginald, old chap. Pleasure to meet you." He said in a thick British accent.

The teen next to Reginald had a more welcoming feeling to him. "I'm Butch Flowers, and may I say pleas as punch to meet you." This pulled a snort of amusement from several of the others, none more so that Reginald.

The blonde-haired girl who was sitting on the arm of one of the comfy chairs stood up and nudged the redhead next to her pointedly. "I'm Allison Church."

The redhead frowned slightly before introducing herself. "Carol Church." It struck David that both girls had the same surname as the Director.

The brunette sitting in the chair where Sierra had placed herself after her little attack on David seemed to regard the boy for a very long time before finally speaking in a soft voice. "Contessa Taylor."

A long silence followed the introductions.

"Hey." James said. "Anyone know where Germain got to?"

All around the only answer he got was head shakes.

"Check his room." Neil suggested. "I think he might be in there."

At that moment, one of the doors on the left side of the room opened and the last member the group appeared. He was tall, and built like a tank, but his face betrayed his age; he couldn't have been much older than David.

"Ah, so you _were_ in your room, huh?" Butch said. "Germain, our last member is-"

He was cut off by the large boy's voice, which was kind of gravelly for someone so young. "I know, I could hear you all with the door shut."

"Right, sorry 'bout that." James said ruefully.

Germain turned toward David. "My name's Germain. You're rooming with me."

"R-Right..." David said nervously.

The larger boy just turned around and walked straight back into his room without another word.

"Don't worry." Contessa said quietly, having appeared next to David at some point. "Germain will seem scary at first, but he's not too bad once you get to know him."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind." David replied dryly.

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 **Please feel free to review. All constructive criticism is welcome. Flames, however, are not welcome under any circumstances and will be paid no heed.**

 **See ya next time!**


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